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The Tana River Delta (TRD) provides a multitude of ecosystem services for the local communities including fishing, farming and livestock keeping. The hydrological regime of its river determines for a large part the environmental health of the delta. The development of upstream irrigation schemes and hydroelectric infrastructure can seriously impact the ecological status of the TRD. The Tana Inundation Model (TIM) presented here is the first known hydrological model of the TRD. Using it, we quantify essential hydrological variables of ecological importance for 2002-2011 such as flood extent and duration, flood timing and frequency, flood peaks and water height. TIM also provides an annual water balance. The model simulates river inflows and outflows, precipitation, overland flow, evapotranspiration and infiltration. The TRD is characterized by scarce hydrological data and a high cloud cover limiting the use of many remote sensing techniques. The methodology therefore combined a conventional water-balance analysis with the extraction of inundation extents from MODIS satellite imagery at a medium spatial and temporal resolution. In non extreme years and for the actual configuration of the Tana River, the flooded area exceeds 560 km². Floods over 200 km² occur approximately every two years, with a mean duration of less than 25 days. River discharge from the upper catchment counts for over 96% of the total water inflow. This study provides the first known estimates of these variables for the Tana River Delta and is therefore primordial for the management of the water and other natural resources of the zone. The hydrological model based on the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) is generic enough to be applied to other catchments with scarce hydrological data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In West Africa, tick-borne relapsing fever is due to the spirochete Borrelia crocidurae and its geographic distribution is classically limited to the Sahel and Saharan regions where the vector tick Alectorobius sonrai is distributed. We report results of epidemiologic investigations carried out in the Sudan savanna of Senegal where the existence of the disease was unknown. A two-year prospective investigation of a rural community indicated that 10% of the study population developed an infection during the study period. Transmission patterns of B. crocidurae to humans and the small wild mammals who act as reservoirs for infection were similar to those previously described in the Sahel region. Examination of 1,197 burrows and blood samples from 2,531 small mammals indicated a considerable spread of the known area of distribution of A. sonrai and B. crocidurae. The actual spread of the vector and the disease has affected those regions where the average rainfall, before the start of the extended drought in West Africa, reached up to 1,000 mm and corresponds to the movement of the 750-mm isohyet toward the south from 1970 to 1992. Our findings suggest that the persistence of sub-Saharan drought, allowing the vector to colonize new areas in the Sudan savanna of West Africa, is probably responsible for a considerable spread of tick-borne borreliosis in this part of Africa.

Tick-borne borreliosis in West Africa is classically considered a rare disease whose geographic distribution is limited to Saharan and Sahelian regions. We report results of epidemiological investigations which indicate that tick-borne borreliosis is endemic in all regions of Senegal north to the 13 degrees 30'N latitude and is a major cause of morbidity in these areas. Our findings indicate a considerable range extension for the vector tick Alectorobius sonrai and suggest that the persistence of Subsaharan drought is responsible for a large spread of tick-borne borreliosis in West Africa.